Archive for October, 2011

There is a way to ensure that you prosper in what you do: serve the Lord with all your heart! Hezekiah, King of Judah, lived in a dangerous and tumultuous time. He faced powerful enemies. Idolatry was the popular religion of the day. His parents had rejected God and encouraged people to worship other gods (2 Chronicles 28). Hezekiah had the opportunity to re ject God as well, yet he chose to serve God with all of his heart. He did everything in his power to promote worship of the true God diligently follow God’s commandments. As a result of Hezekiah’s thrived in an unsettled time because he resolved to follow God despite popular opinion.

God will honor the heart that commits to follow Him (2 Chronicles 26:5). In time when worshiping God is not in vogue and when the forces of day oppose Him, it takes courage and resolve to seek after God. God is pleased to prosper those who strive to to please Him rather than to seek the approval of people (1 Samuel 2:30). Hezekiah stands in stark contrast to Rehoboam an earlier king of Judah. It is said of Rehoboam that “he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the lord” (2 Chronicles 12:14) . When you do not set your heart to seek the Lord, calamity is the inevitable result. The surest way to prosper in your endeavors is to diligently pursue the will of God.

A Christian, we ought never to overlook our heritage. An awareness of our Christian heritage helps us to understand our identity, and it gives us a sense of were God is leading us.

The Israelites had a rich heritage. Their nation began as a result of Abraham and Sarah’s faithfulness. The generations that followed included Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph as their faithful leaders. God richly blessed His people and made them prosper. God continued to show favor on the Israelites by leading them out in Egypt into prosperous land of their own. God established His nation through some of the most awesome miracles in history. God continued to provide strong leaders, such as Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Solomon, Deborah, Samuel, and David. He sent mighty prophets such as Elijah, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Unfortunately, in Isaiah’s day, God’s people had reach a point they had forgotten their heritage. They lived as spiritual paupers rather than as heirs to a rich heritage and members of royal priesthood.

Your spiritual heritage is even richer than that of Isaiah’s generation. Your spiritual ancestors include Mary the mother of Jesus, John the baptist, the disciples, the Apostles Paul, and a host of saints down through the ages. Even more important, you look to Jesus as the author and finisher of your faith (Hebrew 12:2). You may have family history of faithfulness that goes back several generations.

Do you see the full picture of God’s redemptive work? God’s plan involves you, just as it has included each Christian throughout centuries. God wants you to participate in His continuing work to redeem a lost world. Your obedience today will provide a legacy of faithfulness to the generations that follow.

For 40 years, or was it longer, I can’t remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert, I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Ronald Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.

I did all I could to help people Understand the concept of real democracy, where people’s committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were they wanted more. They told Americans and other visitors, that they needed “democracy” and “freedom” never realizing it was a cut throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest, but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.

No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we’ve had since Salah-al-Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free from colonial domination – from thieves who would steal from us.

Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called “capitalism” ,but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer.

So, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following His path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters.

I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it.

Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stoop up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light.

When others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah-al-Deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself…

In the West, some have called me “mad”, “crazy”, but they know the truth yet continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free.

Some things must die in order to be productive. Certain seeds will not germinate into a plant unless they freeze during the winter. Jesus know that His death would bring salvation to the world.

A moment you become a Christian, your sinful nature died (Romans 6:6), but there remained sinful aspects of your character that had not gone to their graves willingly. Before you become a Christian, were you self-centered? You will discover selfishness lingering in your life when you ought to be freely sharing what you have in the name of Christ (Matthew 10:8). Did you have a volatile temper. Now as a believer, you experience moments when anger wells up within you. Were you driven by ambition? You may still find yourself in the same motivation as you strive for recognition and position in the kingdom of of God.

In this sinful attitudes are allowed to remain alive, they will stifle the fruits of the Spirit. Your temper may prevent some from coming to Jesus. Your selfishness will hinder you from being a blessing to those around you. Your ambition could cause you to use others to meet your goal. Your family may be suffering because of some areas of your life that you have never allowed Jesus to put to death. It is futile to say, “but that just the way i am.” That is the way you were. But the person died with Christ; you are new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). allow God To complete His work in you and see what fruit your life produces.

Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sin has never seen Him nor known Him.

The bible makes two things clear about sin. first, living a lifestyle of sin indicates that you are not walking in the power of Holy Spirit, regardless of what you say about your spiritual condition. You cannot regularly spend time studying and meditating on God’s Words, praying and walking in a fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and persist and in sin.

Second, if you do not hate sin the way God does, then you do not truly know Him. There are those who continue in their sin yet insist that they Love God and belong to Him. John makes it clear: If you have lifestyle of sin you have not seen Him and do not know Him. You may not have prayed a ” sinner’s prayer,” or made a commitment in your church or been baptized, but the evidence of Holy Spirit’s presence in your life is that you are defeating sin. This does not mean that you will never sin,but is does mean that you refuse to make sin a lifestyle and you immediately seek forgiveness when you sin ( 1 John 1:10). It means that you are opposed to sin, as God is, and you allow Holy Spirit to eradicate every trace of sin in your life. It means that when you sin, you immediately confess it and repent of it and do whatever is necessary to avoid repeating your sin.

If you find yourself falling into sinful habits and not grieving over your sin as you once did, this indicates that you are not abiding Christ. Return to Him in repentance; restore your fellowships with Him; and you will once again experience victory over your sin.